Curious what everyone is using to generate traffic to test various configurations. I personally use Linux so I'm looking for Linux-based tools, but am also interested in hearing about Windows-based tools for everyone else that may be interested in finding a tool for their own personal studies.

I've recently done a little research and found tools like D-ITG or Mausezahn, am thinking of playing with Mausezahn later this week when I get a few free minutes.

I have also Ostinato[1] on my software todo/review list in addtion to D-ITG and Mausezahn. Maybe someone here in this group is already using it and can comment on it?

Iperf works great and it runs on Windows and Linux. I use it most of the time to do throughput tests.

My favorite tool for testing security features on Catalyst switches is Scapy[2]. It allows you to build custom packets and view/send them. Scapy has an interactive command line, but you could use it also to build your own network tools.

Port-Security (Send 2 packets from different mac addresses)

>>> pkt = Ether(src=RandMAC(), dst=RandMAC())/IP()

>>> sendp(pkt, count=2, iface="eth0")

Test ARP inspection

Poison 125's arp cache and tell him, that your mac address belongs to 10.99.99.100. You could create custom packets for doing this, but there is already an "arpcachepoison" function.

>>> arpcachepoison("10.99.99.125", "10.99.99.100")

If you want to play with various routing protocols like OSPFv2/3 or EIGRP, you'll have to get Scapy's code fromt he community repository[3]. Because those aren't available in the official code base yet.

I am interested in finding some tools to generate some traffic as well. I am looking to "stress test" new implementations. I feel this could be added to my toolbox for my verification phase in new designs.